Column: Professional training programs offered through MACCI

Debbie Bauer

With the fall season fast approaching, the Marshfield Area Chamber of Commerce & Industry is pleased to present its Building Blocks to Success programs designed for managers, supervisors, team leaders and team members who are essential to growing your business success.

These professional training programs are offered at the Chamber from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and are open to members and non-members. There is a cost to attend and you can register by calling 715-384-3454, or online at www.marshfieldchamber.com

Our qualified facilitators will present programs on the following:

"Action Planning - The Heart of Basic Project Management" will be presented on Thursday. This program will enable participants to put together a coherent and efficient plan for achieving an objective of their choice.

An action plan is the heart and soul of project management and in this workshop the action plan's value in breaking the accomplishment of an objective into small manageable steps will be explored. In addition, the action plan's ability to create clarity about who is responsible for any given task, to create a series of milestones for when work is expected to be done, its ability to estimate needed resources, and its role in checking status of the plan will be reviewed. Participants also will be assisted in creating action plans for projects they are working on.

"Delegation and Mentoring" will be offered Oct. 16. This fast-paced workshop will explore the steps to successful delegation. It will include analyzing the task, the delegator and the person responsible for completing the task. After a focus on task delegation the group will explore the longer process of mentoring. Both formal and informal mentoring will be discussed along with a process to use when mentoring. Techniques for evaluation will also be shared.

"Communicating Across Generations" is something we are all dealing with in our everyday lives. This program will be offered Nov. 13. Today's workforce may be comprised of as many as four generations working side-by-side, connecting with each other may present even more of a challenge. Each generation has their unique mindset, work style, and ways of communicating. Learning to work and communicate across generations has become vitally important to building a cohesive, productive, and successful team.

At the completion of this module, participants will be able to work with and communicate more effectively with diverse generations, connect with and gain buy-in from different generations, and provide sincere recognition and appreciation that motivates each generation.

"Present to Inform" is the topic for the Dec. 12 workshop. Presentations to inform are the most common type of business presentation, including training sessions, meetings, employee orientations and briefings. Informative presentations should include knowledge of the audience, convincing evidence, clear message, visual impact and soliciting feedback.

In this program, you take a step-by-step approach to these presentations so that you can be sure that your message is clear, your audience stays engaged and you cover all the relevant points you wish to make. At the completion, participants will be able to plan for effective informational presentations, use a structure for making your ideas clear, reinforce your information using visual impact, and solicit feedback to ensure clarity of your message.

"You are the only person on Earth who can use your ability." - Zig Ziglar